Japanese Residents’ Society And Their National Consciousness In Late Qing Dynasty

This paper takes Japanese residents,who passed in and out of Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty,as the research object.The Japanese residents appeared in the era of the Tokugawa Shogunate.In May 1866,Tokugawa Shogunate issued a decree which abolished the policy of maritime prohibition and allowed Japanese people to go abroad for learning and trade purposes.The Japanese began to go overseas from that time on.Shanghai is one of their destinations.From then to more than 20 years before the SinoJapanese War of 1894-1895,with the increase of Japanese in Shanghai,the Japanese residents’ society was gradually formed in the concession.In the early days of the Japanese residents’ society,there were many people engaged in trade except for the Japanese prostitutes.They dreamed of achieving economic success in Shanghai.In the context of their active activities,in June 1890,“Shanghai Shinpō” was born as the earliest Japanese newspaper in Shanghai.While promoting the trade between the two countries,the newspaper also published many news about Japanese residents’ daily life.From this point of view,"Shanghai Shinpō" is very suitable for understanding the issue of Japanese residents’ society in the late Qing Dynasty in Shanghai.This paper will take "Shanghai Shinpō" as a clue to restore the Japanese residents’ society in Shanghai at the late Qing Dynasty,and analyze their national consciousness.Specifically,the population change of Japanese residents was counted from the newspaper’s editorials and news.Secondly,turning to the Japanese organizations such as shops,schools and youth associations,the development of the residents’ society was studied from the perspective of organizational activities.Finally,the nationa l consciousness of the residents is divided into two parts: one is the analysis of the residents’ views on the Japanese prostitutes occupying the majority of the populatio n;another is to study the consciousness of the residents paying attention to the economy through the reports related to the Nisshin Bōeki Kenkyūjo founded in the “Shangha i Shinpō” with the Nisshin Bōeki Kenkyūjo of the Qing Dynasty.Besides,the author analyzes the impact between the thought of the Japanese residents’ attention to the economy and the thought of the Japanese government’s desire to enter China by militar y means,to understand the conflict between the Japanese lived aboard and their nation.